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Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Where/when is my next laptop purchase

My fastest computer in my home right now is a MacBook from 2009. It's hard disk
has been replaced by a SSD and runs smoothly with the latest OS X and Slackware
with some minor glitches (web-camera not working, occasionally system have USB bus error,
result in non usable system without keyboard, have to reboot back to OS X to fix it).
I have been searching for my next laptop for some time, but still don't find
a perfect one that suites my particular requirements:

With 13"/14" screen resolution must be high DPI, the higher the better,
minimum 3200x1800.

Must have optical digital sound output, be it dedicated TOSLINK connector
or combo with head phone jack (this has been standard for MacBook for years).

Be lightweight and have longer battery life (>= 8 hours)

Must be Linux friendly.

Actually, Dell's XPS 13 almost meets the requirement, except for the
optical digital sound output. Apple's MacBook Pro comes close but
it is not Linux friendly, and screen resolution is lower than Dell's.
All of Lenovo's offers lack optical digital sound output, X1 carbon does not
have high resolution screen, Yoga Pro does not have enough CPU power.

Maybe I should wait one or two more years, then Intel's new 3D XPoint maybe used for
storage, oh my, maybe I will never buy a new one ... ...